Massachusetts Miscellany

-PPP's newest Massachusetts poll finds Barack Obama leading Mitt Romney 57-39, up a tick from last month when the spread was 55-39. A lot of the internal numbers on the poll are pretty brutal for Romney. Only 39% of voters have a favorable opinion of him to 58% with a negative one. Only 23% consider him to be a Bay Stater, to 67% who do not. They say by a 42/44 margin that they disapprove of the work he did as Governor, and by a 55/36 spread they think Deval Patrick has been a better leader for the state than he was. (Patrick has a solid 51/37 approval rating.) There aren't a lot of positives to take out of this poll for Romney.

-Massachusetts' ballot initiatives on both assisted suicide (58/25) and medical marijuana (60/27) continue to lead for passage by wide margins. What's interesting about these is that both of them have support across party lines. Democrats (61/22), independents (61/22), and Republicans (47/38) all favor the assisted suicide measure. And it's the same story when it comes to medical marijuana with Democrats (67/20), independents (59/27), and Republicans (45/41) all expressing support.

-Massachusetts voters like John Kerry. He has a 52/35 approval rating and would lead a generic Republican 54-33 in a head to head match up, suggesting he should be reelected easily in 2014 if he wants to be. Voters aren't thrilled about the idea of him becoming Secretary of State though- 30% say they would like him to move into that office while 48% would not and 22% don't have an opinion either way.

-We've been asking the same set of poll questions about the Red Sox all year, and the faithful have gotten more and more depressed and more and more hostile toward Bobby Valentine with each passing poll. In June Valentine had a 33% approval rating to 25% of fans disapproving of him and only 17% thought he should be fired to 52% who believed he should continue on. Now his approval rating is just 18% with 50% of fans disapproving of him and 42% think he should be fired to only 25% who think he should stay on and 33% who don't have an opinion. It's pretty clear he's lost the support of the fan base.

In March 82% of Red Sox fans thought the team would make the playoffs and believe it or not some are still holding out hope. 21% still think they'll qualify for the postseason and 3% even think they'll win the World Series. But most fans are ready to move on from this season. 55% approve of the cash saving trade the team made with the Dodgers last month to only 16% who disapprove of it. And looking ahead to a possible replacement for Valentine, 52% say they'd like for Terry Francona to return as the team's manager some day to only 23% opposed to the idea.

Full results here

Comments

[Jonah]

42/44? So a majority approve of his actions as governor?